Telephones UK - Speaking Clock TELEPHONES UK CALL THE TELEPHONES UK SPEAKING CLOCK SERVICE WITH THE VOICE OF PAT SIMMONS ON 0871 789 3642 Telephones UK has its own popular Speaking Clock Service which features the authentic voice of Pat Simmons . It is a TIM2000 Speaking Clock project designed by Andy Emmerson. The number to directly access the Speaking Clock is 0871 789 3642, if dialling from abroad the number is +44 871 789 3642. Calls to our Speaking Clock service cost 13p per minute plus your phone company's access charge. When dialled the clock will speak for 90 seconds, you can hang up before this time, but the line will be engaged until the 90 seconds has elapsed. We do aim to provide a reliable service whenever possible, however we cannot guarantee that our speaking clock will always be 100% accurate.

If you wish ensure that you receive a guaranteed accurate time check we suggest that you dial the BT speaking clock on 123 (check your BT directory as the number may differ in your telephone area). Should you experience persistent problems, please contact us via our feedback page. Our clock has no connection with the genuine BT Speaking Clock service nor with the THG. During periods of high demand callers may receive either engaged tone or ringing tone when the speaking clock equipment is in use. If this occurs then please redial again, a little later. THE HISTORY OF THE BT SPEAKING CLOCK THE VOICES OF THE BT SPEAKING CLOCK - UPDATED FEBRUARY 2009 A London telephonist, Jane Cain, also known as Ethel Cain, became the first voice on 24 July 1936 and lasted until 1963. She won a prize of 10 guineas (ï¿½10.50) in a competition to find the right voice. Miss Cain passed away in September 1998, aged 87. LISTEN Miss Pat Simmons, a supervisor in a London telephone exchange became the second voice from 1963 until 1984.

Miss Simmons passed away in November 2005, aged 85. LISTEN The third voice, belonged to Brian Cobby who was an assistant supervisor at Withdean exchange in Brighton. He became the first male voice at 11 am on 2nd April 1985 until 8 am on 2nd April 2007. Brian Cobby, an actor by profession before he joined BT, was selected from 12 finalists in BTï¿½s Golden Voice competition, on 5th December 1984. LISTEN Brian Cobby was born on 12 October 1929 and died 31 October 2012. The present voice, belongs to Sara Mendes da Costa (40) from Brighton & Hove. She became the fourth permanent voice of the BT Speaking Clock at 8 am on 2nd April 2007. Sara won a competition BT ran during October and November 2006 to find a new voice from the public, which had almost 18,500 entrants, simultaneously raising more than ï¿½200,000 for BBC Children in Need.

LISTEN more.. The BT Speaking Clock has also been known as TIM (the three-letter code, that subscribers dialled in Director areas). The BT Speaking Clock receives around 70 million calls a year. The BT Speaking Clock has been ticking 24-hours a day, seven days a week since 24th July 1936 and is now 70 years old! The service was initially only available in the London directory area and was rolled out nationwide in 1942. The Speaking Clock service was named Timeline during the 1990's. Originally the accuracy of the BT Speaking Clock was one-tenth of a second, it is now correct to within five thousandths of a second! There have only been four permanent voices for the BT Speaking Clock. There was also a two week period in March 2003 when Lenny Henry did a special version of the Speaking Clock in aid of Comic Relief and a week long stint by 12 year old Alicia Roland in October 2003.

Brian Cobby & Pat Simmons Brian Cobby Before Brian Cobby worked for BT, he recorded the ï¿½5-4-3-2-1ï¿½ Thunderbirds are go!ï¿½ for the theme tune to Gerry Andersonï¿½s TV series! Brian Cobby has received fan mail from ï¿½mature ladiesï¿½ who say they listen to him late at night when they canï¿½t sleep! The longest distance call to the Speaking Clock is from a factory in Hong Kong, which makes handsets for the VideoPlus VCR programming system. The in-built clock is set to British time, courtesy of BT's Speaking Clock service. The timing of most television programmes is synchronised to the BT Speaking Clock as well, so when your local station goes over to ITN for the News at Ten, this is done "at the third stroke". The worldï¿½s most famous clock, Big Ben, checks its time with the BT Speaking Clock and many major organisations have permanent feeds of the clock from BT into their private internal phone systems so employees can check the time without making an outside call.

The 1936 Speaking Clock was an of array of motors, glass discs, photocells and valves and took up the floorspace of a small room! The current Speaking Clock, with a built-in crystal oscillator and microprocessor logic control, the complete apparatus is made of solid-state microchips and occupies no more shelf space than a small suitcase does ï¿½ and has no moving parts at all. Describing the BT Speaking Clock as a National Institution is probably fair, since as a nation we seem to be remarkably keen on ringing up. Even in its first year, 1936, the service registered nearly 13 million calls and it was not a nationwide service then - that came six years later. Today we make around 100 million calls a year and that's a lot of watches being checked. The original Speaking Clock message was recorded and replayed rather like the optical sound track of a film and the equipment represented the state of the art of current technology in those days. This lasted until 1963, when it was replaced by more modern recording technology, using a magnetic drum. It gave way to the present digital system in 1984 and this has no moving parts at all.

The unquestioned accuracy of the Speaking Clock has also led to the association of Accurist Watches, who since the end of March 1986 have sponsored the BT Speaking Clock announcements. With those 100 million calls a year, this may well be the most frequently heard advertising message of all time. But what did people do before the speaking clock was invented if they wanted a time check? Simple: they rang the operator and asked her the time by the exchange clock on the wall, but this was not precise to the second, nor could the exchange always answer just when the customer wanted. The first genuine speaking clock machine was introduced in the USA in 1927, coming to Paris in 1933, The Hague in 1934 and Switzerland in 1935. But automatic time service (of a Heath-Robinson kind) had been available to telephone users in San Francisco since the late 19th century; by listening to an observatory clock for at least a minute and decoding clicks and single and double buzzes against some detailed instructions you could set a pocket watch-but it helped if you already knew more or less what the time was! A proper speaking clock is far less trouble!

AT THE THIRD STROKEï¿½ LENNY GIVES THE SPEAKING CLOCK THE RED NOSE TREATMENT - March 2003 Between 9 am on 10th March 2003 and 12 noon on 23rd March 2003 Lenny Henry became only the fourth person ever to be the voice of the BT Speaking Clock in its 67-year history. By calling 123 callers helped to raise around ï¿½200,000 for Comic Relief - and, of course, got the most accurate time available. For two weeks Lenny took over from the current voice, Brian Cobby, and added his own special touch to the immortal lines: "At the third stroke, the time from Comic Relief will be ... precisely!" Lenny Henry said, at the time: "I can hardly believe it, but those good people at BT are letting me be the voice of the Speaking Clock for two weeks to raise money for Comic Relief. That's right, me, Lenworth George Henry from Dudley in the West Midlands!

The Speaking Clock is serious stuff - over 100 million calls were made to the Speaking Clock in 2001! - and the time is still going to be 'precisely' right, even when I'm doing the voice! It's a national institution, but you should hear what we've done to the pips!" Lenny's version of the Speaking Clock featured different character voices each day to raise the ï¿½200,000 for Comic Relief. SCHOOLGIRL TAKES OVER THE SPEAKING CLOCK - October 2003 At 1730 BST on 13 October 2003, the current voice of the Speaking Clock, Brian Cobby, was replaced with that of a Scottish schoolgirl for a week. Alicia Roland, 12, from Renfrewshire, was able to utter the famous words "at the third stroke" after winning a competition to become the famous voice. It was the first time that a Scottish accent and a child's voice have been used for BT's Speaking Clock and only the fifth time it has ever been changed.

The idea was part of the Big Listen, a week of activities which encouraged adults to listen to young people and raise money for ChildLine. "AT THE THIRD STROKE..." THE SEARCH FOR A NEW VOICE FOR THE BT SPEAKING CLOCK BEGINS - RAISING VITAL FUNDS FOR BBC CHILDREN IN NEED - OCTOBER 2006 For the first time ever, BT is giving people across the UK the chance to take their place in history and become the new ï¿½permanentï¿½* voice of the BT Speaking Clock ï¿½ and all in aid of BBC Children in Need. A special competition phone line will be open from, Monday 23 October until midnight on Sunday 05 November 2006. The BT Speaking Clock will have a new voice to help celebrate its 70th birthday, while aiming to raise significant funds for the charity. Established in 1936, the Speaking Clock has only ever had three ï¿½permanentï¿½ voices, so the lucky winner will take his or her place in British history.

The UK-wide competition is officially launched by BBC Children in Need and Brian Cobby (77), who has been the voice of the Speaking Clock for almost 21 years. Entry details can be found at bbc.co.uk/pudsey . The new ï¿½permanentï¿½ voice will officially go live on the BT Speaking Clock in the New Year. Sir Terry Wogan says: ï¿½How would you like to be the most listened to voice in the UK? You can be the new BT Speaking Clock, and at the same time help BBC Children In Need. Just by calling 09067 533 533, answering a question about BBC Children in Need, and then recording your own unique version of the Speaking Clock message, you could be in with a chance of winning this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And Iï¿½ll announce the winner on Children In Need's big night, Friday 17th November live on BBC ONE. Letï¿½s be hearing from you!ï¿½ Calls to the competition number will cost no more than ï¿½1.50, with ï¿½1.10 going straight to BBC Children in Need.

Callers must have the permission of whoever pays the phone bill. Every penny raised will help BBC Children in Need provide practical and lasting support to disadvantaged children and young people in the UK. These include youngsters who have experienced homelessness, neglect, abuse or poverty and encountered serious illnesses, disabilities, psychological disorders and addictions. Sir Christopher Bland, chairman of BT, said: ï¿½The BT Speaking Clock is a national treasure. Even though we live in the Digital Age, more than 70 million calls are made each year to the BT Speaking Clock to get an accurate time check. We hope that this competition raises significant funds for BBC Children in Need and celebrates the Speaking Clockï¿½s 70th birthday in style.ï¿½ BT has supported BBC Children in Need since the first televised Appeal in 1980 and handles more than 200,000 calls on the night of the appeal from more than 50 call centres. Speaking Clock: Why are people still dialling for the time? - BBC News BBC News Speaking Clock: Why are people still dialling for the time? 22 July 2011 Read more about sharing.

Close share panel Image caption Ethel Jane Cain, a Post Office exchange operator from Croydon, was the first voice of the Speaking Clock in 1936 At the third stroke, the Speaking Clock will be 75 years old. But why in an era of laptops and mobiles do many people still get the precise time from a recording of a well-spoken woman? Time is inescapable - it's there in the flick of a wrist, push of a mobile phone button and glance at a computer screen. You could argue there is no real need to pick up a landline and dial 123 to hear BT's Speaking Clock and be charged 31p for doing so. But the service still receives 30 million calls each year, with demand peaking on four very time-sensitive days. People want to celebrate New Year at precisely the right time, they like to double check when the clocks have gone either forward or backward, and they want to ensure they start their two-minute silence at exactly 11am on Remembrance Day.

Anecdotally, it is also rather popular just before five o'clock, when call-centre staff are desperate to avoid picking up a 20-minute call from an irate customer. The Speaking Clock was created for people who did not have a watch or clock to hand. Before 1936, people used to ring the exchange operator, a real person, to settle a dispute over the time. Precisely please Introduced on 24 July 1936 It has never been a free service - in the early days, calls were one penny from home and tuppence from a phone box In its first year of service, 13 million calls were made For the first six years, it was only available in the London area It used to be called Tim as people would dial the first three letters of the word 'time' It is now officially called Timeline The original Speaking Clock and two subsequent models were developed by the Post Office in the UK, although one was sent to Australia. The Post Office had a long history of helping people set their clocks when many places still operated on local time, says Viscount Alan Midleton, curator and librarian at the British Horological Institute.

This was before the railways made it essential for everywhere to be operating on the same time - set as Greenwich Mean Time. "In the large Post Offices in cities, they had very accurate clocks and the mail coaches would set their watches by that," says Viscount Midleton. "Using the old solar measurements, Bristol was 11 minutes behind Greenwich and Penzance was 20 minutes behind. When the mail coach arrived a large number of people would gather around the coachman - who was like a walking Hello magazine - and get the political gossip and the official city time. "It is thought to be the origin of the phrase 'passing the time of day'. They were literally getting the time of the day and the gossip." British obsession The first Speaking Clock was accurate to within one tenth of a second and its modern equivalent is accurate to within five thousandths of a second. For everyday things, such as catching a train, making a doctor's appointment or getting to school on time, that level of accuracy is unnecessary.

People of a certain generation have been brought up on it - it was the first call I ever made Sara Mendes da Costa, Voice of the Speaking Clock But when even seconds are precious, it can be frustrating when your phone is displaying one time and your computer another. The Speaking Clock is still an emblem of accuracy to some people, which might explain why they're still prepared to pay for it, says Rory McEvoy, a curator of horology at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. In 1936, when the speaking clock was introduced, people were reliant on mechanical clocks, says McEvoy. "Mechanical time-keepers are reliable to a point. They are prone to inaccuracy because they can get dirty and need considerable maintenance. "The Speaking Clock was a way of being sure you had the correct time, and the English had an obsession with precise time keeping." He says it is still relevant today because our modern electronic gadgets are not always great time-keepers - as if to prove his point, his own computer was running four minutes late. The Speaking Clock gets its time from the atomic clocks at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK's official time-keeper.

The clocks keep the time accurate to within one second in three million years, which means the error in a day or a week is minuscule. While precise time is vital to keep the internet running and for satellite navigation, the NPL's Peter Whibberley says it isn't much use to the average person. "For most people it doesn't matter if their clock or watch is off by a few seconds but the error has to be corrected before it becomes too large. Brief history of time-keeping Prehistoric man measured time using the stars, changes in the seasons, day and night The earliest time measurement devices were the sundial, hourglass and water clock In medieval times, mechanical clocks appeared using gears, wheels and weights In 1656, Christian Huygens invented the pendulum clock The first quartz clock was invented in 1927, based on the electric property of the quartz crystal. It remains the world's most widely-used time-keeping technology because it's reliable, robust and relatively cheap The world's first working caesium atomic clock was built in 1955 "Many clocks are simply free-running and gradually drift away from the correct time of day.

Others are reset regularly to a reliable source of time." His reliable time sources include the national radio time signal operated by NPL, which provides the time pips on the radio, and internet time servers. "The best way to get the most precise time is probably to use a GPS receiver, which should be able to obtain the correct time to better than a microsecond or a millionth of a second. GPS chips are now often found built into the latest generation of mobile phones," he adds. But of course, accuracy is not the only reason why people are still calling the Speaking Clock. "Brian Cobby, the third voice of the Speaking Clock, used to receive fan mail from people who used the service late at night just to hear his calm voice," says McEvoy. Sara Mendes da Costa became the fourth voice of the Speaking Clock in 2007, triumphing over 18,500 other entrants. She says back then about 70 million calls were being made to the Speaking Clock. People of a certain generation were brought up on it, she says, but younger people may not be aware of it. "It's something I remember from my childhood - it was the first call I ever made. It's steadfast.

People trust the Speaking Clock - Big Ben is timed by it." She says the previous voices were incredibly well-spoken but BT were looking for a "voice that was a little bit more now". "In the past, it was frightfully, frightfully and very clipped. They were looking for a voice that people trust, a warm and friendly voice." Like McEvoy, she also thinks precise time, rather like the weather, is a British obsession. "I'm certainly a bit obsessed with being on time. My father drummed it into me that I had to be home at 11pm and not a moment past." Scientists and engineers might need the precise time, but these childhood memories of the value of punctuality may be what sustains the layman's passion for exactitude. Are there mystery calls on your phone bill? Comments 202 Do you check your monthly phone bill? It might seem like a bit of a chore, but you might miss something – like a ‘speaking clock’ call you were charged for but never made… For most of us, looking through the list of calls and charges on our monthly phone bill is one of those mundane tasks we don’t always get round to. But maybe we should. Why?

There are heaps of eagle-eyed landline owners who’ve spotted that they’ve been mysteriously charged 30-50p for a call to Timeline 123 (the speaking clock) that they didn’t make. Engineers checking lines in your local area could be the cause. That’s what one Which? member was told after contacting Plusnet about a charge for a speaking call on their landline – placed when no-one was at home. After some back and forth Plusnet provided a refund, attributing such calls to BT Openreach engineers checking lines, despite having asked them to use a free number. Others report ‘phantom’ call charges A quick Google search reveals similar reports of being charged for Timeline 123 speaking clock calls, many on forums belonging to BT, Plusnet, Sky and TalkTalk. Many of the posters are able to rule out themselves, children or elderly relatives from having made the calls. For some it’s a one-off, while others report up to seven calls over a couple of days. Some also managed to get a refund from their phone provider after persistence. Are engineers calling ‘123’ to test lines?

We notified Openreach about the phantom calls – a spokesperson told us: ‘This is not an issue as far as we know. Openreach engineers have a special number to call to test a line that doesn’t result in a charge.’ Openreach offered to investigate any further examples we have, so we want to hear from you. How many of you are paying for calls you didn’t make? We may only have just scratched the surface, as not all of us religiously check our phone bills, nor do those who have bother to report odd calls we can’t explain. With 25m landlines in the UK, there could be millions of pounds going to these phantom calls. Do you check your phone bill and have you spotted a rogue 123 call that you know wasn’t made by you or someone in your household? Useful links: Are you hoping to pick up a bargain in the Black Friday sales?

Yes, I only ever buy products in the sales No, I'll steer well clear Not sure TIME HAS A NEW NUMBER AS SPEAKING CLOCK TURNS SIXTY: NEWS BACKGROUNDER /PR Newswire UK/ United States TIME HAS A NEW NUMBER AS SPEAKING CLOCK TURNS SIXTY: NEWS BACKGROUNDER The speaking clock, known as BT Timeline, celebrates its 60th birthday today and a new nationwide number, 123. Affectionately known as "TIM", from the first three letters of TIME dialled on the old alpha-numerical dial phones, Timeline is the oldest recorded information service in the UK. It is also the only recorded information service available at a non-premium rate - calls to 123 can now be made from anywhere in the country but are only charged at a local rate. Two million calls are made to the speaking clock each week. Since its start in 1936, the speaking clock has had three changes of technology and three different voices. Before the mechanical speaking clock, telephone customers wanting to know the time rang the operator who referred to the exchange clock, which was the most accurate available.

Four clocks now serve the country - two in Holborn, central London and two in Liverpool. The first clocks used for TIM were electro-mechanical devices where the different parts of the time announcement were recorded on rotating glass discs and broadcast at intervals of ten seconds. The glass disc clocks were replaced in 1963 by new devices which used a revolving magnetic drum. In 1984 a digital system was introduced called Chronocal. The clock is accurate to five milliseconds and caused the search for a new voice with a competition among BT staff. Previously the 'Golden Voice' competition was won by female employees - Miss Jane Cain in 1936 and Miss Pat Simmons in 1963. The winner of the 1984 competition, and the current voice of the speaking clock, was Brian Cobby, who was an assistant supervisor in a Brighton telephone exchange. The 8,640 daily announcements on Timeline are made up of 86 different words which took Brian just one hour to record.

The clock saw a further change in 1986 when Accurist Watches began sponsorship of the clock, and the new message "At the third stroke the time from Accurist will be...." was recorded by Brian Cobby. Caroline James, commercial manager, BT Timeline, comments: " BT Timeline is yet another example of BT providing a valuable and much-used service to its customers. Changing the number to 123 for the whole country is part of our commitment to our customers and makes the service even simpler to use and more easily accessible. "Timeline is a valuable and inexpensive resource for our customers.

As well as being very useful when the clocks change, it's also essential for visually-impaired customers." Notes To Editors: Speaking clock Timeline Exact time UK London Duration of day : 8 hours Civil twilight start at : 07:15 am Civil twilight end at : 05:07 pm Speaking clock Information A speaking clock service was first introduced in Britain on July 24, 1936 The mechanism used was an of array of motors, glass discs, photocells and valves which took up the floorspace of a small room The voice was that of London telephonist, Ethel Jane Cain, who had won a prize of 10 guineas (£10.50) in a competition to find the right voice Cain's voice was recorded optically onto the glass disks in a similar way to a film soundtrack The service was obtained by dialling the letters TIM (846) on a dial telephone, and hence the service was often colloquially referred to as "Tim" However this code was only used in the telephone systems of the cities of London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester "At the third stroke, the time will be (hour) (minute) and (second) seconds"

 For times that are an exact minute, "precisely" is substituted for the seconds portion of the announcement Similarly, announcements for times between the hour and one minute past the hour substitute "o'clock" for the (zero) minutes Other operators run their own speaking clocks, with broadly similar formats, or redirect to BT's service.

In Moscow, the Speaking Clock number is 100 if dialed from within the city, or +7-495-100-xxxx from other countries (where x can be anything) At one time in Moscow there were advertisements before and after the announcement of the current time; this practice has since ceased. The speaking clock in South Africa is reached by dialling 1026 from fixed or mobile networks and consists of a female voice reading the time in 24-hour format, alternating between Afrikaans and English All of South Africa is in the time zone GMT+2 without any daylight saving time so the speaking clock is the same all over the country.

The speaking clock (Swedish: Fröken Ur, meaning Miss Clock) in Sweden has been in service since 6 October 1934, and can be reached by dialling 90510 (+46 33 90510 from outside Sweden) Four women have contributed with their voices for the service: Eva Ulvby (1934–1956), Berit Hofling (1956–1968), Ebba Beckman (1968–2000), Johanna Hermann Lundberg (née Östlund) (2000-) More details at In Taiwan, the speaking clock can be reached by dialing 117. In the United Kingdom, the speaking clock can be reached by dialling 123 on a BT phone line; the number may vary on other networks A voice announces SPEAKING CLOCK - GENERAL DESCRIPTION 20,000,000 calls to TIM in the first year - 1936. 265,000,000 calls to TIM from London users from 1936 - 1949.

400,000,000 calls to TIM nationwide from 1936 - 1949. Final of Golden Voice Competition for the Speaking Clock The photograph shows the Postmaster General with judges who include Major Tryon and Mr John Masefield, the Poet Laureate (Picture dated 21 June 1935). The voices of TIM Jane Cane - the first voice of the Speaking Clock voice. She was chosen after a nationwide competition among 15,000 women telephonists and was awarded ten guineas. Until then she used her first name Ethel but dropped this in favour of her middle name, Jane, and made a record for the GPO helping other staff improve their speaking voice. She went on to become announcer for Henry Hall during one of his broadcast concerts and was offered a film part by Columbia Pictures under the name of Jane Cain. Born 1st May 1909 - died aged 87 on 19th September 1996. Miss Ethel Cain dialling TIM at Dollis Hill to hear her own voice tell the time, 20th March 1936.

Pat Simmons - A competition was held in 1963 to find a replacement for Miss Jane Cain's voice for the Speaking Clock. It was won by Miss Pat Simmons, an Assistant Supervisor in Avenue Telephone Exchange, London. She was to be heard until Brian Cobby replaced her in 1985. Pat Simmons recording Pat Simmons recording Brian Cobby - The voice of the Speaking Clock today, he is interviewed at and this is an extract: How did you become the voice of the speaking clock? I moved to Brighton more than 30 years ago and got a job with the Post Office, where I worked for 16 years. In 1984, British Telecom [as the Post Office's telephone arm became in 1981] decided to change the speaking clock. They ran a competition among the staff to find a replacement voice, which had to be clear and warm with no regional accent. After a series of regional heats, I beat a lady from Lowestoft in the final. She became the voice that says, "the number you have called has not been recognised." I became the voice of the speaking clock on 2 April 1985 at 11am, precisely.

The telephone lines were jammed with people trying to listen. How long did the announcements take to record? Just an hour, but it was hard work. I recorded the times in a studio in London, where I had to read from a 33-page script. It was calculated mathematically [only 86 words are actually used], so I didn't have to go all the way round the clock. Later, we found that we hadn't taped the 'o' clock' so I had to drive back up to London just to record that. Might we have heard your voice anywhere else? Maybe. Before I worked for BT I was an actor. As well as films and some Shakespeare, I did a lot of voiceover work, mostly for commercials. In 1965, I did one of my most famous voiceovers: the countdown for the TV programme Thunderbirds. The poster above them looks intriguing... Yes, it's from a 1959 film I did, called The Nudist Story. It was billed as being shown in 'blushing technicolor'. Many years later, a Sunday paper ran a story, 'Speaking clock in nude movie'.

The picture they printed of me was actually that of a boy who played my brother, who, alas, was a lot skinnier than me. I had a great body in those days... The wording of Brian Cobby's announcement was altered in 1986 to include the phrase "sponsored by Accurist " to become "At the third stroke the time sponsored by Accurist will be...." Lenny Henry - Lenny Henry is to provide the voice of the speaking clock for the next fortnight. The comic's Black Country burr will replace the usual plummy tones of BT's service as part of a Comic Relief fundraising drive. Callers dialling 123 pay will 10p for the service, and proceeds from today to March 23 are expected to raise ï¿½200,000 for the charity. Lenny, who is temporarily replacing Brian Cobby as the voice of the clock, is only the fourth ever person to take on the role in its 67-year history. He will be putting on a different voice each day in the hope of encouraging people to ring back. He said: "I can hardly believe it.

Wait until you hear what we've done to the pips." March 10, 2003 Alicia Roland - A 12-year-old girl says she is proud to have become the only child and the first Scot to record the Speaking Clock in its 67-year history. The schoolgirl's voice will be heard by up to two million callers over the next week. Alicia, from Brookfield, Renfrewshire, beat thousands of children from all over the UK in a competition to become the voice for a week. The idea is part of the Big Listen, a week of activities which encourages adults to listen to young people and raise money for the charity ChildLine. Organisers estimate Alicia will raise ï¿½200,000 during her week in the job - calls cost 10p and BT is donating every penny to the good cause. She said: "It's very nice to be the first child to do this job, I think it's good for people to hear a child's voice when they ring up.

"My friends at school were a wee bit envious but they've been really supportive, they said they're going to ring up the clock loads this week." It is only the fifth time that the Speaking Clock - which began in 1936 and receives 80 million calls a year - has been changed. 13th October 2003 Dialling codes The original dialling code was TIM, short for Time, which was used in London and other major cities. At smaller locations the code was 8081 or 9-8081. After the change to all-figure numbering at the end of the 1960s the TIM code was changed to 123 and elsewhere 8081 was changed to 123 also, some time in the 1990s. Reliability The accuracy of the speaking clock is beyond reproach, within five thousandths of a second in fact. With a built-in crystal oscillator and microprocessor logic control, the complete apparatus is made of solid-state microchips and occupies no more shelf space than a small suitcase does.

Contrast that with the array of motors, glass discs, photocells and valves of the original speaking clock back in 1936 - it took up most of the floor space of a small room! Major organisations such as Network Rail and London Weekend Television have permanent feeds of the clock from BT into their private internal phone systems so employees can check the time without making an outside call. The timing of all ITV television programmes is synchronised to TIM as well, so when your local station goes over to ITN for the News at Ten, this is done "at the third stroke". And perhaps the strangest - and certainly longest distance - call to the British speaking clock is from the factory in Hong Kong that which makes the handsets for the new VideoPlus VCR programming system. The in-built clock is set to British time, courtesy of BT's Timeline service. Update, by James Campbell (January 2001) A direct feed existed to the BBC. I remember in about 1983 visiting a BBC building on the Embankment just round the corner from Westminster tube station, it was no 1 (can't remember the name of the road).

It was a half derelict building covered in pigeon sh*t, but on the second floor was the BBC Parliamentary Recording Unit. It was linked via cables under the road to the Houses of Commons and Lords. This was a place that looked like a museum but was fully operational. The thing that I found amusing was the fact that they recorded all the material in mono on one track of the tape recorder, and recorded TIM on the other track as a quick time reference. Because the pips were rather good at breaking through to the other speech track, this particular TIM, provided by BT, did not have any pips and was known by the BBC as "seedless TIM". What's left to see or hear of the old clocks Not a lot is the simple answer. The Australian clock of 1954 used to be on display at the Science Museum in London but after falling into disrepair. One of the original TIM clocks was preserved and was donated by British Telecom to the British Horological Institute's museum at Upton Hall near Newark, but this too is not in working order.

People report having heard the Pat Simmons speaking clock (thanks to TIM 2000) on the following numbers: (0870 765) 8081, (0845 092) 8081, 0845 124 9068 and (0131) 477 7676. The above numbers may not be accurate so try 01352 838081 and 01286 868081. TIM 2000 In the year 2000 a project was devised for creating a compact electronic speaking clock (with the Pat Simmons voice). Around 75 units were sold (there are no plans to make any more). For more information see Further reading The Post Office Speaking Clock in Practical Mechanics, June 1936 (pp 514-515). The GPO Speaking Clock in Practical Mechanics, May 1938 (p 425). The Speaking Clock of Paris in Practical Mechanics, April 1934 (pp 317-318).

The New Speaking Clocks in The Post Office Electrical Engineers' Journal, April 1963 (pp 1-6). Further resources on the WWW The BT Speaking Clock. The UK Early warning system that used Speaking Clock lines for distributing alert signals. and British Horological Institute. British Pathï¿½ news film archive. (there are some superb pre-war newsreels that you can download from this site; try entering 'speaking clock' or 'golden voice') The German poltergeist who dialed the speaking clock | Strange Unexplained Mysteries Home Paranormal The German poltergeist who dialed the speaking clock The German poltergeist who dialed the speaking clock Strange Mysteries and Unexplained Stuff | Discover the mysteries of the world . | NEW * A Lawyers office in Rosenheim Bavaria, was the unlikely setting for a poltergeist case that completely altered public opinion on the subject of poltergeists in Germany. Armed with introductions from Hans Bender, director of the Freiburg Institute of Parapsychology, a team traveled with a camera to Rosenheim in the spring of 1975 to make a television documentary on the case for BBC television.

Arriving at the centre of town, they sought out Konigstrasse 13, a tall building in which various professional men had their consulting rooms, and which had been the scene of the notorious poltergeist activities they had come to investigate. They had centred on the office of a lawyer named Adam. Engineers Herr Adam said that the events that were to become so famous began quietly enough in the summer of 1967, when telephone malfunctions were reported by office staff. Calls to the office on Rosenheim 1233 had been interrupted by clicks or cut off, and sometimes all four receivers would ring at once although the line was dead. The malfunctions had become too frequent to overlook, and’ the office manager, Johannes Engelhard, called in repair men from Siemens, the company that had installed the equipment a junction. box and four telephones. The Siemens engineers worked in the office for several weeks, testing wiring and equipment. Although they found no faults, they replaced the receivers and junction box but, as this did not improve matters, they called in the post office. Early in October, the post office replaced the Siemens equipment with official post office telephones.

They installed a meter so that, as they were made, calls could be recorded visibly in the office on a counter, with a similar meter at the telephone exchange to provide an official record. At the same time, Herr Adam asked his staff, the office manager Johannes Engelhard, two office clerks and a part-time worker, tomake a note of their calls. A Registered Call On 5 October 1967, Adam and Engelhard were amazed to see the meter register a call although no one in the office was using the telephone. On 19 October, the same thing happened while Adam was with accountant Dr Schmidt, who produced an affidavit for Adam to show the post office. Comparing the records from his own meter, the meter at the exchange and the notes of his staff, Adam realised that these two incidents were by no means isolated. Dozens of un dialled calls had been registered. The post office insisted that all the calls had been made in the normal way and, even more peculiar, they had all been made to the speaking clock. Strange Goings On A row broke out between the post office and Herr Adam.

Adam pointed out that all his staff had watches and could hear the chimes of at least two church clocks, and could therefore keep a record of the timing of their telephone calls. Furthermore, no one was ever alone in the office, and it was ridiculous to suppose that so many calls could have been made unnoticed by anyone. Between 7.42 and 7.57 a.m. on 20 October 1967,46 telephone calls were registered to the speaking clock. Adam further pointed out that although at least 17 seconds are needed to dial and connect with the speaking clock, even if one does not wait to hear the time, the post office claimed that as many as six calls a minute had been made, and continued to send enormous bills. Nevertheless, on 31 October, they replaced the telephones again. This time, the dials were locked and only Herr Adam had a key. This step made no difference, and on 8 November Herr Adam was extremely angry to receive another huge bill that did not correspond with the records at all.

He issued an accusation against person or persons unknown, of fraud or embezzlement; it began: ‘For several months my telephone installation has been so disturbed that a regular telephone call is impossible.’ Source : hub page

Question: What number is dialled to hear the Speaking Clock?
Answer: 123